Interview: Dan Sapozhnikov (AdGate Media)

Dan Sapozhnikov has been in the internet marketing space for over 7 years. He’s had lots of success with affiliate marketing and more specifically, incentive marketing. Dan is now a managing partner of AdGate Media LLC and is focusing all of his efforts on growing a successful affiliate network.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you?

I’m 21 years old and currently studying finance and information systems at NYU. I was born in Lithuania, but I grew up in New Jersey. I am currently living in both New York City and New Jersey.

2. How long have you been in affiliate marketing and how did you get involved?

I’ve been creating websites since I was 12 years old. I had some kickass Pokemon websites, but it wasn’t until 2004 that I finally started making some real money from my sites. At first I used CPC to monetize my websites, but after a few years I discovered CPA, and have been promoting offers ever since.

3. What has been your biggest success to date?

I used to run a pay-per-download website. My biggest success was helping one of my affiliates on the website earn mid 5 figures in one month. It was a great feeling watching him go from virtually nothing to these high numbers in the course of a few months. This is something I hope to recreate on a much larger scale with AdGate Media.

4. What was the biggest mistake you made when you first started doing Affiliate Marketing?

I used to direct link everything and not optimize at all. I would direct link a campaign from Adwords, and once it would fail I would just scrap it and move to the next one. Big mistake.

5. Tell us a little bit about AdGate Media and what you do over there?

AdGate Media is an incentive CPA network that provides a highly customizable content gateway for its affiliates. I’m the network manager there and deal mostly with advertisers and technical stuff.

6. There are already so many CPA affiliate networks out there. What makes AdGate Media different?

I’m not going to say we have the highest payouts (but we do), or the best support (this too). What really makes us special is that we hand pick each offer. Because we have experience in the industry and keep a close relationship with our affiliates, we know what offers do well and what offers don’t. When it comes to content locking, you want quality not quantity. You won’t login to our system and find 1000s of offers, only of which a few dozen convert well.

7. Do you offer biweekly, weekly or even daily payment? If so, how much does one have to make to qualify?

Yes. Affiliates who consistently make over $10k a month qualify for biweekly payments.

8. Which offers are performing well on your network?

We have a bunch of email submits and game download offers which are doing really well right now.

9. I see you are using HasOffers as your affiliate tracking platform. What made you pick them instead of choosing LinkTrust, DirectTrack, Cake Marketing or HitPath etc.? Do you have a plan to create your own tracking platform?

HasOffers has been nothing short of incredible in terms of support and features. Thanks to their tools, we had a flawless experience when integrating our custom gateway software with their tracking system. As an affiliate, HasOffers was one of my most favorite systems to work with. We don’t have any plans to create our own tracking platform at the moment.

10. What are the criteria for a marketer to be accepted at AdGate Media?

It would be easier to give the criteria for a marketer to not be accepted:
-Illegal content (copyrighted)
-Adult content
-Fake information (address, telephone number, etc.)

Avoid those three things and you shouldn’t have a problem.

11. For those who are interested in working with you and your affiliate network – What’s the best way/time to reach you?

The best way is by AIM (adgateDan), we’re online almost all hours of the day. You can also reach us by phone or email.

12. In your experience, what are the three most critical elements to running a successful campaign.

Careful observation, persistence, and creativity. These three things are the key to running a successful campaign. This means: You need to do your research, work on the campaign until its profitable, and be sure to innovate and not simply copy an older idea.

13. What do you think about where the industry is going? Where AdGate Media may be going? What advice would you give to affiliates to keep up the pace.

The affiliate industry is definitely growing, and it’s growing fast. Lots of large companies are entering the game as advertisers opening up a lot of possibilities for affiliates. Another change that’s already taking place is the shift toward content locking and virtual currency. Even Facebook has adopted incentive marketing for game credits.

AdGate Media is letting our affiliates take advantage of this shift by providing them with a highly sophisticated content gateway.

If affiliates want to keep up in this industry, they must always be active. Don’t run a campaign and just let it sit, even if it’s earning well. Keep in touch with your AMs and other affiliates to have a sense of what’s going to happen next.

As of now, I spend most of my time working. However, when I’m not working I absolutely love traveling. I’m all about discovering new places, learning history, and meeting new people.

I’ve recently been watching a lot of Woody Allen movies. Annie Hall and Crimes and Misdemeanors are two of my favorites.

Many thanks to Dan for sharing your time with us and for sharing some great insight tips here! If you have any experience with AdGate Media, please write a review for them on the AdGate Media review page.

Ps. If you are an affiliate marketer, AM or Network owner and are interested in answering a few questions about you, your network and affiliate marketing, please drop us a message.

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3 Comments

Michael March 31, 2011

I have personally worked with Dan, and can personally say that he stands by what he says and believes in. He helped me out a great deal when I needed something, and was always extremely willing to do so. His network, AdGate Media, is my favorite incentive CPA network to date, and plan on being with them for a long time!